October 2, 2009

Letterman has to admit it, because he needed to testify about an attempt to blackmail him over his secret sexual affairs with women who have worked with him. D'oh! And now it is revealed. How does that undermine his sweet, inept, self-mocking lecher he's been on the show all these years.

Here's video of the confession he did on the show last night. "I had to tell them how I was disturbed by this I was worried for myself, I was worried for my family, I felt menaced by this, and I had to tell them all of the creepy things that I have done that were going to be exposed. [Laughter.] Now why is that funny?"

He did a good job of damage control, I think. He made it sound as if it was just sex — which implies that you're a prude if you don't give him a pass. But sex with the women who work on his staff? This is the atmosphere of sexual harassment. What are the details that made the blackmailer think he could extort $2 million? Did some women get jobs and promotions because they were sexually available while men and other women lost out?

***

Meanwhile, here he is with Madonna, in a cute bit where they go out for a slice of pizza in the Italian restaurant next door to the theater. Madonna, it turns out, has never had New York pizza-by-the-slice and she's quite fussy about cheese... and not fussy at all about touching hands all down the aisle of the theater and in the crowd outside and then eating with her hands. What a dame!

Earlier in the show, Madonna talked about her famous 1994 appearance and attributes her strange behavior to marijuana smoking. I'm not sure if that counts as promoting marijuana or warning against it, but it bothered me to hear the icon admit to doing it (even 15 years ago).

(2) This said, that Letterman video is, in fact, proof that Madonna is much cuter than I thought. But I don’t care for those oversized sunglasses she wears. Too impersonal. She should lose the sunglasses, except [REMAINDER OF COMMENT DELETED PER MRS. BISSAGE.]

It was odd to hear the laughter and applause during the story he told.

Why odd? Letterman is a celebrity and they can pretty much do anything and they'll be adored. Clinton treated women like doormats and feminists loved him. I think its a hoot that he gets cheers and applause for admitting he banged a bunch of women but if you or I stood up and there read off our lists of conquered poontang we'd be hissed off stage.

Cause when you’re a celebrityIt’s adios realityYou can act just like a foolAnd people think you’re coolJust cause your on T.V.I can throw a major fitWhen my latte isn't just how I like itThey say I've gone insaneI'll blame it on the fameAnd the pressures that go with....Being a Celebrity

Letterman had sex with several of his staffers, but you can count on NOW giving him a pass. Any other boss would be accused of sexual harassment but he won't. And to think he called Sarah Palin's daughter a whore. Who's the whore now.

I saw the story and all I could think was "Thank God we had this paragon of virtue to defend us from immoral people like Sarah Palin's slutty daughter!"

But as Whoopi Goldberg would probably say, "It's not sexual harassment-sexual harassment!" Right? Notice that it was sex with female staffers, plural; women whose careers Letterman had considerable power to help or harm. So this wasn't a single incident of a boss boinking a subordinate, but an ongoing pattern of behavior. In your office or mine, the guy would be fired for cause.

I already thought Letterman was a schmuck. This just confirms it even more. But as Glenn Reynolds noted at Instapundit, the timing is excellent for Letterman; compared to Roman Polanski, he doesn't look like so much of a heel.

Yes to Carson. It took me a while to understand my Leno rubs me the wrong way. He's trying too hard to be liked. I don't want to like my entertainers, I want to be entertained. Leno's interacting with the audience, high-fiving them? Ugh.

The smart money bets that there is more to this story than Letterman simply having sex with a few staffers. I don't know what the rest of the story is, but the rest of the story is a great deal more squalid than Letterman lets on.

It was odd to hear the laughter and applause during the story he told. (Did the Applause sign come on?)

I kept thinking: He's being serious, you laughing hyenas! (OK, I knew ahead of time what Letterman was going to say, and the studio audience didn't, but still ...)

Craig Ferguson may have been left wondering what the value of American mirth is when he tried to get serious on his own show, and when he mentioned the late Anna Nicole Smith, someone in the studio audience burst into laughter:

AllenS said... The woman should have taken Dave to court, and sued him for whatever damages she thinks she might have sustained. Dave would have settled out of court for about $2 million.

According to the papers, it wasn't a woman turning the screws on Letterman over some whoring for a promotion that never happened.

It was a millionaire executive at CBS, Emmy-nominated Producer "Joe" Halderman,51, that saw what he thought was a goldmine in blackmailing Letterman. Poor guy's own lavish lifestyle was hit by stock losses and a 6,000 a month alimony payment to his ex.

It proves David is a creep. Whether its consensual or not, big companies have sex harrassment laws to protect themselves from this stuff. As for David, you are in your 60s, you have a child now, grow up.

When Madonna was a poor struggling dancer in NYC in the late 70s she never had NYs cheapest eat - PIZZA? She didn't go all healthy until the late 80s so I don't believe that. Anyone who starts out in NY on a tight budget lives on pizza (3 food groups!) and cup o noodles.

Maybe Letterman's real hatred of Sarah Palin is that he knows she's way out of his league, looks-wise, and that she has her own job, and job skills, so he can never extort sex from her in exchange for being a gaffer.

whoah whoah.. back up a little..'admitting' to smoking a joint is shocking to somebody ???.. really ?isn't that what one normally does before eating pizza ? (and don't tell me that madge has never, in her poor, teen, struggling years in nyc that she never had a slice!not believable.)

in the last few years, whenever i saw stephanie delivering gift checks or awards to studio audience guests, i noticed that she's not smiling anymore and she doesnt look happy, unlike during the early 2000,